Dr Will Murray and Paul Gallemore outline the key stages and lessons of one company’s efforts to improve its management of occupational road safety.
The potential of occupational road-risk management to help reduce harm to humans and assets, generate business efficiencies, ensure legal compliance, and ultimately cut costs, has generated increasing interest in the subject in recent years. Yet, there are still few published case studies of organisations that have effectively managed this risk.
One example that goes some way to address this research gap is that of buildingproducts distributor, Wolseley, which has invested in a detailed fleet programme over the last four years, based on research and experience from around the world. Over four years, the company has halved its third-party collision rate and gained a number of wider benefits by adopting a holistic approach. And, despite several barriers, the programme continues to show measurable successes on all its key performance indicators.
The following year-by-year breakdown shows the steps Wolseley has undertaken to implement its fleet safety programme from its conception, moving from having limited ideas of the risk levels driving posed to its people to being what it describes as a leading exponent of employee travel safety.
2004
The starting point of the current Wolseley programme occurred when a fleet-safety audit undertaken by the company’s insurer identified a number of gaps in road-safety policy, in part brought about by a period of rapid growth through acquisition. The audit set a baseline for benchmarking processes, both internally and against industry best practice, which led to recommendations on safety policy, driver risk assessment and management processes being identified and taken up by a newlyappointed SHE manager.
Fleet safety was identified as the biggest risk of asset damage and human harm faced by the company. One of the first initiatives was to take over the running of the newlyformed Fleet Safety Steering Group (FSSG), which was set up to implement the audit recommendations.
The FSSG meets quarterly and includes senior management, and managers from health and safety, transport, operations, and Dr Will Murray and Paul Gallemore outline the key stages and lessons of one company’s efforts to improve its management of occupational road safety. It also has several influential external participants, including the fleet insurer, leasing company, accident-management supplier and risk-management advisor. It is seen as a key group for identifying effective collision-reduction programmes, proposing fleet-safety policies to the company’s leadership team, making the appropriate business case, helping embed new initiatives, and overcoming any barriers to progress.
2005
Making a strong business case to the board was an important early step, both to engage senior managers and secure funding and leadership for the programme. To achieve this, the moral, business, legal and financial cases were clearly set out (see ‘Fleet first’, SHP May 2009 for a generic discussion of these issues).
The work helped engage senior management in fleet safety. In turn, this allowed the FSSG to develop and implement a fleet-safety policy statement, which was incorporated into the wider health and safety manual, and a fleet-safety action plan, which set out the steps that should be taken over the next 12 months. Since that time an annual review process has been introduced to ensure the policy and plan remain accurate and allow continual improvements to be made.
The main actions during 2005 included preparing, consulting on, and launching both car and commercial-vehicle driver handbooks, a driver risk-assessment trial, and external benchmarking. In addition, a detailed analysis of insurance claims helped the company gain a better understanding of its current situation, and allowed specific risks to be targeted — identifying a third-party collision rate of 0.6 per vehicle per annum (i.e. each year 60 per cent of the fleet had a chance of being involved in a collision).
Armed with the fleet-audit results, collision data, benchmarks and initial risk-assessment
trial data, the steering group was able to target key risks through its policy, action plan, driver handbooks, line-manager training, and a new quarterly commercial-vehicle driver newsletter (which was followed by a company-car version).
Regular safety alerts are also issued to all Wolseley locations following the occurrence of a serious incident. This process increases the awareness of all staff across the company and means that control measures are implemented to help prevent recurrences of similar incidents. Additional information and guidance is also made available on the company intranet site on a regular basis.
2006
One of the first steps undertaken in 2006 was to consult the workforce via two commercial-vehicle driver focus groups. These identified that while the company is perceived as highly safety-conscious, several potential areas for improvement existed, particularly: specifying better and newer fleet; security of loads; andimproved driver induction and training.
Based on the outcomes of the focus groups and driver risk-assessment trial, a more detailed online assessment programme, which included an in-built safety climate survey, was launched in early 2006. Initially targeted at 500 company-car and 500 commercial-vehicle drivers, it comprised: a Safe Driving Pledge, asking participants to sign up to ‘do the right thing’ when driving; a policy-awareness check, which aimed to turn written rules into common practice;mand a risk assessment based on the participant’s exposure, attitude, behaviour, knowledge, and hazard perception.
The driver risk assessments provide detailed information, to which actual collision data is added on a monthly basis. This allows both proactive (assessment) and reactive (collision) driver-level outcomes to be monitored, and non-compliant participants to be targeted.
Based on the first 417 company participants, evaluation data showed a relationship between the assessment results and the drivers’ self-reported collision outcomes. This provided confidence that assessment could be used to target appropriate countermeasures to risks. More detailed analysis showed that 6 per cent of drivers were identified as high risk, 84 per cent medium, and 10 per cent low.
The programme is currently being implemented for all employees who drive as part of their work, including a ‘permit to drive’ process for company-car drivers whenever a new car is handed over to a member of staff. Commercial-vehicle drivers are targeted by line managers keen to build momentum for the programme, via business safety champions and proactive regional or brand managers.
A further company-wide fleet-safety audit was undertaken by Wolseley’s insurer to review progress. Figure 1 shows that, on 13 of the 14 sections of the 400-question audit, the company had improved from being worse than the industry average to being above it. Several mini-audits were also undertaken in specific parts of the business, focusing on separate issues for the car and commercial fleets. These independent measures helped with setting, refining, reviewing and improving policies and procedures.
Along with reductions in ‘collisions per vehicle’, the audit data presented in figure 1 was a key element of the company’s submission for the Brake and Prince Michael Road Safety awards, which it won in 2006. This external recognition was important, as it helped gain continuing senior management support and investment. For the first time, the company also took an active part in National Road Safety Week, by engaging graduates in its safety programme.
Continued progress in 2006 saw the formation of car, truck and insurance subgroups of the FSSG, enabling detailed attention to be given to these specific areas. And, to engage and empower local participation, the company health and safety training course for operations managers was amended to include fleet safety.
A Safe Driver of the Year competition was also launched for all commercial-fleet drivers. This comprised an initial online quiz, which was supported by analysis of collision histories, violations, and manager feedback. Employee well-being was also a major focus for the company, as, during the risk assessment programme, a quarter of drivers stated they had not received an eye test in the last two years. This led Wolseley to offer free eyesight screening to all commercial-vehicle drivers and pay towards the first pair if any corrective glasses are required.
2007
During 2007, the programme continued to mature, with many of the initiatives described above becoming embedded in practice, or being developed further. For example, the Safe Driver of the Year competition was opened up to all commercial-vehicle and company-car drivers, and featured a much more sophisticated finals day and communications programme. The driver risk assessment became a mandatory process for all company-car drivers at the time of vehicle collection, or renewal.
Having established the above policies and procedures, Wolseley began to focus more on the local community. The company is aware that many collisions happen close to home, within the communities in which it operates and its employees and families live. This means that the more it can do for road safety locally, the better for the company from a brand and a safety performance perspective.
This external focus paid off in the form of invitations to the company to speak at many industry good practice events, conferences and workshops. It also received external awards during 2007 for the breadth of the programmes described, and because its collisions-per-vehicle statistics continued to fall. Community wise, the company embraced National Road Safety Week in the UK in 2007, by engaging its managers and suppliers in developing many initiatives.
2008 and 2009
Despite the recession having a major impact on the company, the programme continued during 2008 and 2009, with the FSSG focusing on reviewing progress against the original fleet-safety policy and project plan.
As part of this process, the fleet-safety policy, driver handbooks and car policy have all been updated. Further development of the company’s use of its collision data has also been undertaken to allow it to target risks more precisely.
The FSSG and various sub-groups have focused increasing attention on collision investigation and the application of any lessons learned, based on the Department for Transport’s recent CoVIR project (see panel above). The claims-review sub-committee, for example, meets quarterly to focus on the collision data, and review large, long-term, and outstanding claims.
These various processes have helped improve the data collection, reporting and recording process itself — a fact confirmed when two separate, non-fault road fatalities, involving the company’s commercial vehicles, showed the robustness of their systems — including reporting, investigation, driver care, corrective action and rehabilitation, as well as the need to continue enhancing the programme.
The driver risk-assessment programme has continued to expand, supported by the recent implementation of an electronic licencecheck scheme with the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
Results and outcomes
Fleet-safety audit results
Independent data from bi-annual insurer fleet audits (see figure 1) show the company’s progress over time and against the wider industry, with clear improvements in the policies and processes the FSSG has implemented under all 14 audit headings, from a standing start in 2004. Overall, the company’s compliance rate increased from 53 per cent to 78 per cent, against an all-fleet industry average of 68 per cent.
Collisions per vehicle per annum
Collision ratios are the most commonly-used indicator of corporate road-safety performance. Figure 2 illustrates the company’s improvement in performance, with the proportion of vehicles involved in a third party collision each year falling from 65 per cent to 35 per cent. This equates to around 1000 collisions avoided per year. Detailed cost data is not presented, as it can take many years for the true cost of a fleet claim to become evident, and it is also seen as too commercially sensitive to publish. Overall, however, annual insurance premiums have decreased by a five-figure sum since 2004.
Uninsured loss recovery
A positive outcome of the FSSG was its identification of an opportunity to raise the profile of unrecovered losses associated with incidents caused by third parties. As a result, the amount of monies recovered by the commercial and car-fleet teams has increased. Figure 3 indicates the monthly and total recoveries from this process. In 2006 and 2007, more than £500,000 was recovered, which has, in part, been used to help fund the safety programme.
External recognition
The recognition the company has received from external agencies, including Brake and the Prince Michael Road Safety Awards, is an important indicator of success, judged by its peers and industry experts. It has also helped sustain the programme, as well as engaging the board and senior managers to continue investing time and resources in road safety.
Conclusion
The Wolseley case highlights many of the key success factors and potential barriers from which others can learn to improve their road safety management. Although not without some limitations, the case has identified pointers for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers.
Overall, Wolseley’s success was based on a number of factors, not least its desire to develop the programme further. Key elements of this include the drive towards regular processes and outcomes, and benchmarking against others. New angles to push the roadsafety message are constantly being identified — most recently, for example, by linking with other important issues, such as the green agenda, and reducing costs and improving efficiency during the recession.
Dr Will Murray is research director at Interactive Driving Systems and Paul Gallemore is head of HSEQ — UK & Europe at Wolseley.
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